The Searcher

Title: The Searcher

Author: Merlin

Genre: Action/Adventure

Chapter 3: Wounded by a Dagger

Disclaimer: I own nothing save the plot.

Recap:

Harry slumped to the ground, exhausted from the tremendous amount of energy he had put into his spells. He looked with a mix of satisfaction and regret upon the blood that was flooding the street they were on, almost all of it shed because of him.

“Very well fought, lad,” he heard Moody say from behind him before blackness filled his sight.

--

When Harry woke up the next day, it was in the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts. Looking outside into the rain, he could barely see that the sun was almost directly overhead now. In the many beds surrounding him were familiar faces he had seen yesterday, a mix of Aurors, Order members, and students. A few of them had curtains drawn around their beds.

In a bed on the other end of the wing, Harry saw the sleeping body of Hermione, and hundreds of horrifying thoughts rushed through his head in an instant. He got out of his bed, quickly put on the robes he wore to the battle, which he vaguely noted had been cleaned, and rushed over to her side.

She seemed to feel his presence and opened her eyes. “Harry…”

“Oh my god, Hermione…what happened?”

“Giant…” she whispered. He felt his throat contract when he realized the girl who had screamed when attacked by the maverick giant yesterday was Hermione.

“Will you be alright?”

“Yeah…only broken bones.” She gestured weakly towards a potion sitting on a rack next to her bed. Harry recognized it as a Revitalization Potion and handed it to her. Some color returned to her face as she finished drinking and tried to sit up. “You're going to stay, right?” She asked.

Harry suddenly remembered his mission. He had all but finished his books back at the Hollow. The only resources remaining were the books in the Hogwarts library. “Yes, for a while. I'll be staying here.” Hermione sighed in relief and lay back down.

“You're stupid Harry, did you know that? You could have gotten killed charging at that giant like that.” Harry flinched, and pushed his seat back to stand up.

“So this is the welcome I get after not seeing my friends for two months, huh?” He sighed.

“Your friends?” Hermione asked sharply. “Oh, we're you're friends are we? You're the one who was planning on leaving us behind and running off by yourself! Didn't we plan on going together, you, me, and Ron? Weren't we going to visit your parents graves at Godric's Hollow? Do you have any idea how hard the Order looked to find you? Where were you?!” She looked close to tears.

I must do this alone. I must do this alone.

Harry said nothing as he stoically walked back to his bed. Madam Pomfrey had heard their shouting and hurried in.

“Ah! Mr. Potter! Miss Granger! I see you have taken your potion already. Good, good. You are one step ahead of me!” She rushed over to Harry. “And how do you feel? Any headaches?”

“No ma'am just tired.”

“Good. It's very dangerous for young wizards and witches to overexert their magic. Here, drink this.”

Drinking the potion and pocketing his wand that was next to his bed, he asked, “Is Professor McGonagall in the Headmistress's office?”

“Yes, the password is `Athena'.”

Harry nodded, a bit surprised that she wasn't trying to keep him there longer, and headed for the door. On the way, he briefly met Hermione's eyes. She held his gaze for a second before turning away.

Walking through the empty hallways, he came to a sad conclusion: there were no more students here. He couldn't hear the soft hum of the students that would come from the Great Hall at this time, nor could he find any of them walking in the hallways. The school must have been ordered to close by the Ministry, and the students were obviously sent back home, taking advantage of the Death Eaters' defeat. Harry furrowed his brow, worrying about how the next generation of witches and wizards would be trained.

“Ah, Harry. You look terribly upset,” McGonagall said from behind her desk as he walked into her office. She seemed to have aged tremendously over night. She had a lot more white hair, and her face was wrinkled. There were dark bags under her eyes from exhaustion. “I think you might have already noticed that the Ministry has shut the school down until Voldemort is defeated. They are not willing to risk any more student deaths.”

“Someone died?” Harry asked, dreading the answer.

“Yes. When the second group of Death Eaters arrived, we were surprised. In that moment of confusion, Seamus Finnigan was hit with a Severing Charm.” Harry flinched. “Fortunately, Professor Flitwick was able to shield the rest of us from future spells.”

“Seamus…” Harry murmured, looking at the ground. He remembered Ronan, a centaur in the Forbidden Forest, once say `Always the innocent are the first victims.'

“Yes, I'll be missing his, ah—explosive transfigurations too.” Harry smiled slightly. Despite his guilt, Harry appreciated that McGonagall was trying to act cheerful. “Now, I believe you are here to ask me something?”

“Yeah, it's about the library.”

“Not to worry, Harry, now that this castle is no longer a school, I'm sure no one would mind if you went through the books we have here. I'm sure Miss Granger will be delighted as well.”

Harry nodded uncertainly. “Is Ron still here?” He asked.

“Yes, would you like to see him?”

“No thank you just, let him know that Hermione is awake.” Harry replied. “Thank you, Professor.” He said, standing up.

For the next few days, Harry spent his entire day in the library's forbidden section with no outside contact (besides Dobby), gathering books he felt would be useful to help him fight. The Prophecy had clearly stated that he would have to use a “power the Dark Lord knows not”, so he couldn't use the Dark Arts to bring down Voldemort, but they would surely help in fighting Death Eaters (as he had proven at Hogsmeade) and in finding the Horcruxes.

He could easily understand why the Dark Arts were looked so lowly upon. Each spell required a tremendous amount of negative emotion to cast verbally, so it would be that much harder to master casting silently.

By the end of the week, he had collected more than twenty books with every thing he needed to know about dueling with the Dark Arts. Just as he was packing up and was about to call Kreacher to Apparate them back to the Hollow, Ron and Hermione walked into his part of the library.

“Harry mate, are you at least gonna say `hi' to us before going off to save the world?” Ron said jovially.

“Sit down Harry, we need to talk.” Hermione added.

“What's there to talk about Hermione?” Harry said, as he disobeyed her order to sit and continued packing his books.

“You. The Order. Voldemort. Everything!”

“Yeah, McGonagall showed up at the Burrow over the summer. We've been made members of the Order, me, Hermione, and Neville.” Harry looked up at Ron to see some sign of their membership, something like a badge, but didn't spot any.

“Erm, congratulations then.”

“Yeah, and Moody put us through part of the Auror training too. I think he seemed to know Hogwarts wouldn't stay open for long. I think he's gonna start that back up now. You wanna join us? Once we're prepared, we can all look for the Horcruxes together.”

Harry took a deep breath and let out a cold, low, “No.” Ron just stared at him, and Hermione spoke up.

“Harry, how come you've changed so much? Just two months ago, you looked happy that we would be coming with you. What happened to all of that?”

“Because, Hermione, Riddle is not going to care if you are the smartest witch Hogwarts has seen in decades. The only thing he'll see is that you are one of my best friends and that you are not mentioned in the prophecy.”

“We've talked about this already!” she cried shrilly, “Do you really think we care if we are put in danger? We've been best friends for six years, and we're targets of Voldemort no matter what. Coming with you isn't going to change anything!”

“Yes it will.”

“Oh then! Please enlighten us!”

“Think about it Hermione.” Harry said quietly. “Who do you think Voldemort is more likely to murder, a long lost friend of Harry Potter that he no longer seems to care about, or a close friend who is following him and helping him destroy Voldemort's immortality?”

“I don't care if he's planning on murdering me!” She was crying now. “You and I both know that I'm going to die in this war!”

“No you will not. Don't say stuff like that.” Harry cursed as he tore his bag trying to zip it up.

“Please Harry, please let Ron and I come.” She pleaded.

“No.” Harry said shortly again, and strode out of the library with his books, forgetting about Apparating with Kreacher.

“No Harry! Stop!” Hermione shouted behind him. He heard Ron gently try to calm her down, quietly saying something about finding him once their Auror training was over. Her sobs echoed through the hallways all the way to the Great Hall. Harry made a quick stop at the Owlery to notify McGonagall of his departure.

Only when he was halfway to Hogsmeade did he remember Kreacher, and quickly called him.

“Kreacher, pack up everything at the Hollow. We're moving.” Kreacher's eyes widened when he saw all the Dark Arts books Harry was carrying and Dissaparated the two of them without complaint.

--

“Hi, welcome to Chesham Apartments. How may I help you?” an attractive woman said from behind a counter on the ground floor of a large apartment building.

“I'm looking for an apartment to stay in for the next two months.”

“In the process of relocating?” She asked conversationally while typing something into her computer.

“Yes.”

“Okay, we have a room on the 4^th floor available. Fully furnished, for £160 a night.”

“I'll take it.” The woman looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Alrighty, your call,” she said, eyeing the slightly ragged clothing of the young man in front of her.

As soon as he shut the door behind him, Harry undid his glamour charms and gave Kreacher the signal to bring in all his items and books from the Hollow.

“Does Master have sufficient space to practice his…NEW spells?” Kreacher asked uncertainly. “Kreacher can enlarge this room.”

Harry nodded and watched as the room grew to nearly ten times its original size. “And Kreacher, I don't know what you're planning but keep in mind that I won't become the next Dark Lord. If you have hopes about all these Dark Arts, get rid of them now.” Kreacher glared at him before stalking off to find a closet to make his new home.

Planning on getting to work right away, Harry sat down on the couch and started chugging through his books. He had found that it was becoming increasingly easy to cast spells now. Before, he would have to practice day and night for a whole week like he did with the Summoning Charm before he got it right. But now, he was able to cast spells which the books claimed were extremely strenuous within a few tries. However, it did take slightly longer to cast non-verbally and still maintain the same intensity.

Thanking his new magical maturity, Harry was able to master each book in less than two days. If he kept going at this rate, he would be done with the stock the Hogwarts library had provided by Halloween.

The more Harry learned, however, the more he felt he was missing something. Within a week of settling in, he had owled McGonagall asking her to send him Dumbledore's pensieve. He had spent hours shuffling through and analyzing the old wizard's memories of Voldemort, looking for any clues as to where the Horcruxes might be hidden.

He felt he was knowledgeable enough in magic to be able to retrieve a Horcrux, if he only knew where it was. No matter how hard he looked through the pensieve however, he simply wasn't smart enough to find any clues.

Damn…Maybe I should call up Voldemort and have a tea party with him, he thought in frustration. Yes, a nice little chat would be enough to get the world's most feared Dark Wizard to talk. He pushed away his books and leaned back heavily.

“Oh my god…that's it!” he yelled jumping to his feet. All he had to do was “talk” to Voldemort, although not literally. Scrambling for some parchment and a quill, he quickly scribbled a note to Flourish and Blotts asking for as many books on Legilimency that they could find. Voldemort was an accomplished Legilimens and Occlumens, but it would much easier for Harry to perform a secret invasion because of his scar—a mental link to Voldemort that had existed almost since the day he was born.

Once he opened his new books and started performing the concentration exercises, he realized how truly different Legilimency and Occlumency were, and why he had failed so miserably at Occlumency two years ago. Mastering these two branches of magic required a certain “shape” of mentality. Legilimency wasn't possible unless the performer had a sharp, focused mind. Occlumency also needed focus, but an overall defensive mentality was much more crucial than sharpness. It was like the difference between a dagger and a shield.

Harry had always been more of the aggressive type, jumping straight into things instead of focusing on his defense (once again proven by his attack on the giant), and this helped him to pick Legilimency up at an amazing rate. He would often spend his days next to the window of his apartment, targeting a passing Muggle and jumping into his mind and secretly observing. The first few days, the Muggles would look around in surprise because of Harry's direct assault, but as he developed more subtlety, he could easily withdraw small information such as the Muggle's name, address, and birthday without the Muggle noticing. However, he didn't think he would be able to use Legilimency as an attack just yet.

With Halloween approaching, Harry decided to visit Diagon Alley once more and test his skills on Wizards and see if he could maintain his subtlety. His plans were spoiled, however, when he ran into Fred, George, and Lee Jordan having a drink at the Leaky Cauldron.

“Harry! Buddy! What brings you here?” Fred asked cheerfully.

“Sit down, sit down. Tom! One more butterbeer over here!” George called.

Harry sighed, and sat down at their table. “Hello Fred, George, Lee. What are you guys doing here?”

“Ah, just taking a break from the shop,” Lee said. “Everyone's getting ready for Halloween I bet. Never had so much business…”

“Say Harry, why don't you come in with us? You haven't been by our shop in a while.”

Harry let the twins and Lee lead him to the Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. The “U-No-Poo” sign was replaced with a sign for their instant darkness powder, which had become quite popular in England. Looking through the windows, Harry could easily tell it was the most crowded shop in Diagon Alley.

He turned his gaze to look at Gringotts Bank further down the street. No sign could be seen of the attack nearly two months ago, and witches and wizards were exiting and entering all the time.

Fred and George took him around the shop, showing him all their new inventions. They had something that looked like another Fanged Frisbee, except this one had sheep eyes instead of fangs. Grabbing it, along with a few other objects of interest, Harry moved on.

Just as Lee finished showing off an improved version of their Extendable Ears, a loud hissing noise filled the corner of the shop they were in.

Harry froze as he recognized the noise right away. Fumbling through his robes, he pulled out a Sneakoscope. His heart stopped as he looked at the tip of the bright red arrow:

THE BURROW.

--

Molly Weasley was having a fairly normal day. She had gotten up before the rest of the family as always, and was busy cooking the huge lunch they, as well as Hermione who was staying with them, would need. Moody had convinced Hermione's parents to let her stay at the Burrow so she would be able to drop in and out of the Ministry for their Auror training easily.

Molly had been delighted to hear that her youngest son had asked Hermione out, but was feeling uncertain at the way they were acting. She knew Ron had been with another girl during the school year, thanks to Ginny's gossip, and he was expecting something more physical that what Hermione was offering. Hermione would often get frustrated if Ron would try to cuddle when she was studying.

Molly greeted everyone as they descended the stairs, one by one, and seated themselves at the table.

“Say, no attacks have been mentioned in a while,” Ron commented as he flipped through the Daily Prophet.

“Don't say that! You'll jinx it!” Ginny chastised.

Not a second after Ginny said that, everyone was startled as a loud pop was heard in the dining room.

“Harry!” Hermione yelled. Soon after, Fred, George, and Lee appeared with three more pops, all with grim expressions on their faces. Harry darted to a nearby window to look outside while Fred and Lee started banishing away all the food on the table. George cast layers upon layers of sealing charms on the doors and windows.

“C'mon mum, we have to leave,” Fred said, with a quiet, uncharacteristic chill in his voice. “They're here.” Everyone gasped. Molly quickly ran to the fireplace and threw in a handful of floo powder. To her horror, the green flame that appeared vanished in an instant. She tried Disapparating to the Ministry but found that nothing happened either.

“They've blocked the floo, and set up Disapparation blocks.” She whispered. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Charlie stood up and drew their wands. “Quick Hermione, send a message to the Order tell them to Apparate in here—”

“Too late.” Harry cut her off as he backed away from the door. Finally having a chance to test his Legilimency, he closed his eyes and sent out a weak brain wave.

“Harry what are you…?” Hermione asked. Harry ignored her as he continued to let his consciousness expand away from him. He could easily detect about ten other Wizards flying invisibly above the lawn. He felt three of them separate from the main group and come closer.

Harry snapped his eyes open just as three figures in black robes burst through the door. Judging from their shocked expressions, they didn't expect him to be there, and they didn't expect to find the entire family pointing wands at them either. Taking advantage of their surprise, Harry raised his unarmed hand towards them, palm facing forward, and made his move.

“Legillimens.”

The subtle nature of the spell required neither complex wand movements nor loud and clear pronunciation. Harry uttered the words in a calm and powerful way, temporarily emitting a peaceful aura similar to the one Dumbledore constantly maintained. Time stood still for one moment, then ripples of energy suddenly zoomed out from Harry's skin towards the three Death Eaters, like the way ripples would rush away from a pebble thrown into a lake.

The Weasleys stared on in awe as Harry furiously attacked the undefended minds of the Death Eaters over and over again. Within seconds, it was over. Harry lowered his hand and the Death Eaters crumpled to the floor obediently, unconscious.

“There are a few more outside.” Harry said. “Charlie, you take Ron and the twins and go to the attic. You should be able to snipe them down from there. Take these.” He pulled out two gold rimmed glasses he had gotten at the Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes and handed them to Charlie and Ron. “They're wearing invisibility cloaks. Fred, George, I think you two have your own ways to see through cloaks.” The four nodded and dashed up the stairs.

“Okay,” Harry continued. “I'm going out through the door. Someone come with me, and someone stay here to guard the door.”

“I'll come.” Hermione said. Harry cursed himself mentally for forgetting she was still there. “Lee, Ginny, you stay here with Mrs. Weasley. Harry, do you have your cloak with you?”

“Erm—yeah it's right here.” No matter how hard he tried to act like he was in control of the situation, he still felt dominated by Hermione. “I've stitched it up a bit though. It's slightly smaller.”

“No big deal.” She took the cloak from him and threw it around the two of them. It easily covered them both since they were so skinny. Harry cast silencing charms on their feet and led Hermione out the door.

“Specto Death Eaters.” Hermione whispered while pointing her wand at Harry's eyes, then her own. Looking up, Harry could see glowing orbs of red light hovering above the yard. He felt slightly stupid for not devising a mechanism to be able to see the Death Eaters, so he thanked Hermione.

“Wait, let me try this.” Harry said, pulling out the eyed Frisbee from the twin's shop. Casting a disillusionment charm on it, he sent it towards the glowing red orbs which marked the Death Eater's location. Their conversation was transmitted clearly over to Harry, and Hermione leaned in to listen.

“Antonin, what in the world is taking them so long?” a female voice asked.

“I do not know Bella, but show patience. There is no way they would have been able to know beforehand to alert Dumbledore's precious Order.” a man replied with a slight accent.

For a moment, Harry wondered why Snape hadn't called him through the mirror warning him of the attack.

“Look! There's someone there in the attic!” One of the Death Eaters yelled. Harry jerked back the Frisbee as Hermione yelled “Immobulus!”

A flash of purple light erupted from her wand and froze most of the Death Eaters in place, making them amazingly vulnerable to the Weasley's attack from the attic. One of them dodged Hermione's spell and shot towards the Burrow's door.

Harry and Hermione, their invisibility cloak now lying forgotten on the ground, added to the barrage of spells against the Death Eaters that were frozen. Bellatrix seemed to be able to cast the counter curse and freed herself and Antonin Dolohov. She turned tail and zoomed straight out of the boundaries of the Burrow, intimidated by the rain of curses bombarding her group. Dolohov soon followed.

“Stay here!” Harry yelled at Hermione as he charged after Dolohov. Running underneath the frozen Death Eaters, he angrily shot every single spell he could think of. To his incredulity, a simple, non-verbal Wingardium Leviosa hit Dolohov's broom, sending it flying out of control. The Death Eater fell to the ground with a thump and attempted to flee on foot, but he was no match against Harry's silent curses and soon fell unconscious.

After making sure Dolohov wouldn't be able to escape, Harry turned around. Hermione was limping towards him with his cloak. Behind her, the Death Eaters lay unmoving on the ground, their brooms surrounding them.

“Hermione, what happened?” he asked, pointing to her leg.

“Oh nothing, one of them fell on me and I twisted my ankle.” She seemed embarrassed by her failure to emerge from the battle unscratched.

Harry knelt down next to her and muttered, “Curatio,” fixing her ankle.

“Where did you learn that?” Hermione asked, surprised.

“Oh you know...Madam Pomfrey had to do it a million times on me by now.” He said, scratching his cheek. Hermione smiled at him.

The four Weasleys in the attic Apparated into the yard behind them, the blocks set up by the Death Eaters apparently gone. Fred and George were cheering in victory as if their favorite Quidditch team just won a match.

“We showed him, that You-Know-POO!” Fred yelled.

“Yeah, the Death Eaters vs. the Death Beaters.” Charlie said dryly. Pops were heard as the McGonagall, Lupin, and Moody arrived as well. Moody limped over to the unconscious Death Eaters and smirked.

“Terrific job lass,” he said to Hermione. She blushed.

“I guess that Auror training paid off.” She said.

“Wow Harry,” Remus said walking towards Dolohov's body. He seemed guilty that he wasn't able to help, but he also seemed like he accepted Harry's independence. “I'm sorry we weren't able to make it in time.”

“That's alright Professor Lupin, no one was hurt.” He stopped short as Ginny came running out of the house, tears streaming down her face.

“Ginny, sweetie, what's wrong?” Charlie asking, running to meet her. She collapsed onto the ground, now crying freely. Lee came out of the house a moment later, his face pale, levitating behind him the unconscious body of the Death Eater who had tried to get inside. Lying motionless in the doorway was—

“Mum!” Ginny wailed.

--

AN: Heh, that's my terrible attempt at a cliff hanger…

I hope everyone realizes how glad I am that I have enough reviews to buy the Daily Prophet from whoever owns it. It is truly an honor that so many people like my writing. Thank you for reviewing!

Special thanks to my Beta-Readers MJwannabe, Sarily, and Eileen Prince (listed in the order I received their revisions). They've done a terrific job editing this chapter. If I could, I would like to donate 20% of my reviews to each of them as a token of my appreciation. Thanks!

For those of you who wanted to Beta-Read but weren't chosen, I apologize. I picked my Beta-Readers based on how well they edited the previous chapter (Chapter 2), the quality of their stories, and their replies to my emails. I hope you keep on reading!

Also thanks to all of you who said my writing style was very similar to that of JK Rowling. That has been my main goal in writing this fic, to make The Searcher feel like it is the true sequel to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

However, please keep in mind one very important thing: JKR is the captain of an enemy ship. No matter how much I respect her, I will never, EVER climb aboard with her. As a faithful reviewer said, “HMS Pumpkin Pie, full steam ahead!” (Thanks Muirnin)

Merlin

(P.S If this AN doesn't make much sense, it's because I uploaded it on fanfiction.net first…)

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